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Page 443
443 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA the first table under Masoretic text represent the original tradition, those in the second table claim attention because of their modesty; 2. The some, however, think those of the Sar Flood maritan text earlier, according to which Exodus. till the Methuselah> Jared> and Lamech died in the year of the flood. It is to be re marked that 100 years of Shem may be deducted from the last table, and this results in the following: From creation to the flood
From the flood to Abra
ham's birth . . . . . . . . .
Total................ He- Sam- SeQtu brew. aritan. agint.1,858 1,307 2,282 290 940 1,070
1,946 2,2473,332
Age of Abraham at his call . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Age of Abraham at Isaac's birth . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Age of Isaac at Jacob's birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Age of Jacob on entering Egypt .. . . 130 After Abraham's call 80 130 215 Length of the sojourn in Canaan . . Length of the sojourn in Egypt . . Earlier life of Abraham . .. . . . . . . . From the creation to Abraham's birth : Total........................He
brew.
215
430
75
1,948 2,888Samaritan.
215 215 75
2,247 2,752
These last figures give the lapse of time from creation till the exodus. What the second and third columns mean is doubtful, but it has long been seen that the number 4,000, a " world-number," representing 100 generations of 40 years each, is represented in the Masoretic column by two-thirds of that number, 2,666. This leaves the remainder of 1,333 years to be accounted for.
But first it must be noted that in I Kings vi. 1 the number 40 appears in the3. The number 480 (40 x 12), which last Exodus to represents the period from the exodus
Solomon. to the building of the temple. The book of Judges does not easily work into this scheme, as the following tables show. a. Major judges; times of peace. Othniel, Judges iii. 11 . . . . . . . . . . 40 yearsThe item concerning Elon is doubtful, since he is absent from the prehexaplaric Septuagint, in Eusebius, and perhaps also from Clement of Alexandria; this would leave 66 years for the minor judges. But the omission in the Septuagint may be accidental. The placing of Jephthah is a matter of judgment; his period, of course, is to be counted but once. To get the period between the exodus and the building of the temple the totals of the four tables above must be added, deducting the repeated item: 226-i111+70+124=531 (or 534, in case Abimelech with 3 years is counted in; Judges ix. 22). But this is far beyond the'480 years of I Kings vi. 1. To relieve this it has been noted that it is usual to reckon the years of a usurper's reign in with the rightful kings, and the years of oppression constitute a sort of usurpation; then the reckoning would give 531111 = 420, and 60 years are left for x+ y+ z. But an objection to this is that in certain eases, those of Jephthah and Samson, the " usurpation " is longer than the reign. But this argument is deceptive, since in the case of Samson it is reasonable to suppose that the Philistine oppression is reckoned into the time of Eli. Similarly the reckoning with regard to Jephthah is doubtful (note the wording of Judges x. 8). At any rate, the foregoing shows that merely rfnechanical handling of the tables is not to be attempted. Another method of shortening the period seemingly indicated in the book of Judges is that of Noldeke, who regards the tables a and b as so interlocked as to show the idea of the historian of the period of the judges; that would leave no room for the table c, dealing with the minor judges. In that case they were not in the original book and not in the chronological scheme, and that scheme calls for 441 years. But even this seems to allow too much time for x+y-Ez. Then it is helped by the fact that the oppression of the Philistines' rule included the period of Eli's government, so that Samson's 20 years and Eli's make up the 40 of Judges xiii. 1, leaving 79 (a round 80) for x-i-y-hz, allotting 40 to Joshua, and 20 each to Samuel and Saul. That makes the scheme from the exodus as follows:
